I don’t understand why some players perceive it as a gear treadmill. It’s not a gear treadmill. It’s only a progression and mmorpg needs that. Gear treadmill is when players have to grind for gears endlessly in order to explore newer content X/Y/Z. In traditional mmo, they practiced this and require players to be in top-notch to explore better content. This will not happen to gw2 even if the ascended gears are implanted.
Unlike traditional mmo, GW2 allows you to be able to do 100% of the content in-game with any tier gears. It’s very different and shouldn’t be perceived as gear treadmill that’s implanted in traditional mmo.Therefore, casual players shouldn’t have any worries.
The game still live up to it’s promises of no gear treadmill with ascended gears.
Ascended gear is a progression, not a gear treadmill. There’s a difference.
Huge update good, gear progression this soon bad. Its not hard to understand.
This is what’s perplexing to me. The game has been out what like 2 months? Introducing a new set of gear so soon after launch is a terrible idea. At this rate we should be expecting new tiers every 2-4 months, with every major content update. Now way that can be good for the game.
Content in pre-ascension zones will become trivial, even with downscaling. I mean, most of it is pretty easy now, if you have full exotics. 80’s rarely go to lower level zones as it is, now the only reason to go would be to get 100% completion. Not to mention WvW…
This is literally going against everything GW2 was suppose to be about.
Personally I kittening love you ANET…thank you for this. I can’t wait! If you feel 2 points of stats are going to be that big of a deal for dungeon content that scales you down ( except arah obviously ) and wvw…then well we simply disagree…WTB PvE Leaderboard website. Willing to help with its construction / maintaining.
You DO realize that Magic Find is the major stat point there? The total stat point increase from exotic to ascended isn’t just 2. It’s TEN points from the two minor stats alone. Add in the major stat and it’s probably more like 15. On a single item. Multiply that by 12 (6 armor pcs and 6 accessory pcs) and you’re looking at a stat increase of AT LEAST 180, and is probably closer to 200 since stuff like chest have bigger disparities, which is pretty big in my book.
And that’s not even considering the weapon, which traditionally has the biggest gap between item tiers. And has a damage increase.
You didn’t read the blog post right or you read what you wanted to read.
*November is introducing 2 items from the Ascended Gear line
Back piece and Ring
- Ring Acquired in dungeon
- Back Piece acquired through recipe at mystic forge (not in dungeon)
You need the infusion for the harder parts of the dungeon for the new condition type agony.
THERE ISNT ASCENSION WEAPONS IN NOVEMBER UPDATE (yes I went caps cause forum is blind)
IN NOVEMBER we’ll unveil the first Ascended items. This new rarity type falls between Exotic and Legendary on the spectrum of rarity and has slightly higher stats than Exotics.
Ascended gear works a little bit differently than other gear types. The stats and functionality normally added to gear through upgrade components are actually built into Ascended items. Instead of upgrade slots, Ascended gear has Infusion slots, and rarer versions of the items also come with additional Agony Resistance built into them. Players will be able to acquire Ascended Rings in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, and Ascended items worn on the back can be acquired through special Mystic Forge recipes.
Dat comprehension
Am I saying otherwise? Where did I say that the other stuff are available already? What it DOES say is that Ascended weapons will get introduced at one point. And what I said is that the stat increase between exotic and ascended isn’t just “2 points” like the guy said.
Please, I don’t think I’m the one who needs comprehension.
I can’t wait. Sounds like the GW2 team has some great stuff coming our way. I’m all for new items and content. The more the better for me. I like having stats to work for not just different art styles. Keep up the awesome work ArenaNet you’ve made a loyal customer out of me!
An oasis in a desert. Truly.
I’m not really all that worried about the change either honestly. If they’re willing to make such a big change to the game this early on, it’s clear they’re at least willing to shake things up a bit in their game. Maybe I’m too much of a glass of water for a volatile thread like this one, but any content is exciting content for me. I wanna see some of those boss mechanics.
Lets be honest, the casuals are the ones complaining. They aren’t going to need the gear. The only reason they would need the gear, would be if they grind the new dungeon, and they won’t grind the dungeon because getting up to that difficulty would take hours to do, and thus become…..that’s right, hardcore not casual.
This is not about casual and hardcore, its about the GW way of doing things and the WOW way of doing things. You really going to call those people with 5000 hours of GW1 playtime casual? This does seem a lot like Anet throwing in the towel regarding their vision of MMOs. Its sad, more than anything else and doubly sad because so many people such as yourself misunderstand it.
Seeing as infused gear is in the original guild wars, it doesn’t seem like they’ve strayed of their course at all.
I have hundreds of hours of play, and know I will probably not get ascended or legendary gear. I already knew this. It doesn’t change the games playability at all. If anything it’s going to bring more players back. More players means ANet gets more money, which means I get to enjoy what I like about the game that much longer.
It’s only going to affect the people who get the gear, or are trying to get the gear in the first place. It’s not affecting the game for anyone else.
There is nothing wrong with adding in progression for players who want it. It’s not affecting the casual players, which is the stance ANet has always had. Power to the casual player as well as the hardcore. It’s only really giving an advantage in the dungeon, not anywhere else seeing as you can do pretty much everything in the game with any level of gear.
GW1 Infusion of existing high level gear was not a new tier of gear with better stats. The best gear in GW1 had the same stats for more than 7 years, still does. You really think just because it has the same name they are doing the same thing? This is a completely different design philosophy and development path. Its like This was made by a completely different company, how many players it brings in be kitten
Wow, when I started this thread I was apprehensive, I had no idea it would become the forum merging central hub for all things Ascended. I apologize to those who’s legit threads have been mooshed into this insanity.
After reading are re-reading the blog I am honestly a bit in shock. I’ve lost the enthusiasm I had for this game being able to stand up on its own legs. Turns out that’s just not the case, I’m not saying I’m leaving or even sure what I’m doing. I don’t take my gaming that seriously nor would I be so arrogant as to suspect anyone else gives a care.
I’m just upset and I feel like I’ve been tricked. Not cool.
Disappointed. This new infusion slot system seems the beginning of an increasingly ad hoc gear system too many games have. Making more bonuses “baked” in just to make room for PvE specific upgrades is silly.
Worse, Anet is not even adding “challenge” to new high level content. They’re simply giving the monsters a new, more powerful attack which can only be countered with a new trinket. You either have it or you don’t. Nothing about skill or anything.
Its not even about gear grind…this whole system is just silly. Anet – you’re never going to please the full spectrum between hardcore gear grinders all the way down to casuals. You’re just going to end up with borked systems like this which end up pleasing no one.
Anet failed to learn from other’s mistakes here. No only do they continue down the path of SWTOR, rift, aion, and others which have already been forgotten by making a wowclone “progression” treadmill, they directly copied a failed mechanic from one of the larger longer lived mmos: Lord of the Rings Online.
LotRO had a mechanic, Radiance, which was a stat used to offset a dungeon’s Gloom. This is identical to the Infusion/Agony mechanic as mentioned in the blog post.
Turbine eventually was forced to remove radiance as a mechanic because the players hated it so much that it was killing the game. The same thing will happen here.
After playing Guild Wars since the release of Factions, this really is a slap in the face. I have lost a lot of respect for Anet.
From the sounds of it, the gear will be completely random too. So not only will WvW players have to grind for dungeon gear, but they’ll have to run the dungeon a lot for the random chance.
Mmmm, I love RNG. That’s why I’m still playing Aion and TERA. Oh wait.
Quitting if this goes live dont like being lied to. And it points to more of this crap down the future. Whats the next colour going to be?
Thought we had gotten off the ‘gear grind’ and here we are.
Sad, I enjoyed the game and was happy to spend money on the gem store to support you. Now? I feel lied to, and am sorry I spend that money >.< Oh well.
You guys seriously couldnt think of anything but the gear treadmill? Most people were happy to have gone past that, not the devs apparently…
Having to grind out a new tier of gear to remain relevant in WvW isn’t my idea of fun.
Exactly.
I don’t like dungeons, i do enjoy other areas of the game and WvWvW and i really don’t like the fact i will basically have to grind something i don’t like to get items to remain on a level playing field in areas i do like.
It’s cool the back item is via the forge (and again it better use the 5 gold guild back item as a base) but to make the rings (and from the sounds of it other items in the future aswell) gated to the dungeons is just wrong, very wrong.
Yes, which is why the horizontal/cosmetic progression has always made sense to me. You want to be the coolest kid in school and pimp your character out with the cool looking stuff? Fine, we’ll give you all of these awesome skins to obtain and everyone will know how awesome you are when you run around the world.
Instead, A-Net has decided to do it exactly like everyone else has tried and failed at. Ruining everyone else’s fun for the grinders. Which doesn’t even really make sense when your game is free to play, and you don’t have to worry about monthly subscriptions keeping your revenue flow going.
So all the exotic gear I worked hard for, the dungeon skins anyway, are going to become obsolete? I hope someone can correct me on this, it’s ridiculous. I’m not going to spend gems on t-stones.
I’m a causal player, and my main doesn’t even have a full set of exotic trinkets yet. The introduction of yet another item tier is extremely off-putting.
Just read the post by Linsey, and am completely baffled by this. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Why? oh. why? …after all the promises
because you have people QQ about that “now I have full set of exotics, what should i do now? where’s the progression? i don’t have goal to log in now” on the forum…
or something like “why should i grind 400 hours on Legendary? they are just skin anyway”
On the one hand, I like the idea of having a ‘real’ endgame content dungeon that requires time and effort spent to get to the rewards at the end, rather than watching a youtube video once. On the other hand, I absolutely do not like the idea of the stats you gain from this dungeon applying to pvp, or even other pve areas.
Gear progression can be good, I think, but not this walk toward a treadmill. Those extra stats that you need? Those bonus points, on top of the infusion? Make it only apply in the Fractal dungeons, or other related content. There, I can do my endgame dungeon that requires time and effort, and it doesn’t influence the rest of the game.
As it stands now, I don’t like where this is going.
Not another dime. You lied to your fans. NO treadmill. Infusions are fine from a dungeon only stat perspective. Increased normal stats are not. You lied and in the process have lost the confidence of many loyal customers.
I’m gonna say it, i urge all who aren’t happy to not leave the game, just stick to the standard exotic level items and ignore only the new dungeon and nothing more.
Heck start a guild called “original exotics only” [OxO] or “Orignal exotics and proud” [OxaP], make it a personal challange to stay on the base exotic level and show Anet that you don’t like a gear grind that way.
In a few months time when i beat a fully acended geared person in a 1 on 1 in WvWvW i’ll have my “/lol beaten by a fully original exotic player” emote ready and waiting.
Why not add raid dungeons and call them something like “Enclosed Community Event Dungeons” that way when you reinvent another wheel and call it something else, people can’t say you flat out lied.
This isn’t entirely unexpected. I find GW2 to be an incredibly enjoyable game, though I didn’t buy into the marketing hype for the same reason I have walked away bitterly disappointed from other recent MMO’s – promises are broken. Rarely does a business remain loyal their cokittenget audience in the world we live in.
I realise that this probably comes off as pretty cynical, though I’m going to try and not let this ruffle my feathers too much. I will say that I have a few concerns about how the community will evolve in the immediate future. I unsubscribed from WoW for a variety of reasons, mostly because I wanted something fresh and based on skill rather than gear. If the community begins preventing players from teaming up based largely on whether or not they have ascended gear, then that will only serve to prove many of the folk in this thread to be correct in their unease.
On the one hand, I like the idea of having a ‘real’ endgame content dungeon that requires time and effort spent to get to the rewards at the end, rather than watching a youtube video once. On the other hand, I absolutely do not like the idea of the stats you gain from this dungeon applying to pvp, or even other pve areas.
Gear progression can be good, I think, but not this walk toward a treadmill. Those extra stats that you need? Those bonus points, on top of the infusion? Make it only apply in the Fractal dungeons, or other content. There, I can do my endgame dungeon that requires time and effort, and it doesn’t influence the rest of the game.
As it stands now, I don’t like where this is going.
If it was only useful in the Fractal dungeon and didn’t physically work in any other part of the game, I think everyone would be happy. But that’s not going to happen considering they said in the blog post that all current Legendary weapons will be upgraded stat wise to be equivalent to Ascended weapons when they are released.
I must admit that the forum automation system is horrible though. Possibly several flags before an automated post deletion, that’s funny.
I don’t even have full exotics yet, so I’m not your ordinary grind all day for the best gear player. However, I am making my way towards a full set of Exotics, I won’t bash an update that hasn’t gone live yet.
Hey, Anet! You can still save yourselves, at least as far as a lot of the WvW crowd is concerned. Just make WvW like sPvP, a level playing field with all skills unlocked and a choice of equal level gear.
“…we don’t expect you to be forced into dungeons at endgame.”
Gear progression fine. The stats aren’t that impressive anyway.
Creating gear that is a grind to get and is required to progress in any environment?
No.
To be fair, we have no way to know how much of this gear is obtained, other than the forge, but considering it’s a level above exotics, we can fairly well assume it’s going to be a large grind or a huge cost.
New gear to work for is fine, but in expansions, not TWO MONTHS after release!
The best thing about this game is getting your exotic set and relaxing about it… unlike WoW where it is exhausting to get the best gear.
This goes against their ideals, they catered to the wrong audience here.. whats next? Flying mounts?
I am a gamer that played Guild Wars 1 for nearly 7 years, and now Guild Wars 2 for 3 months. I am absolutely horrified that ascended items will be introduced into the game. This is totally different from the ArenaNet I expected.
I have 6 level 80 characters outfitted with exotic armor, weapons and jewelry. Frankly, I do not enjoy grinding for gear. The game should be played for what it is and not based on the items that you are wearing. It totally takes the fun out of the game when one of the requirements to enter this new dungeon is to grind for “agony resistant items”. I am extremely disappointed in this decision.
And folks, this isnt a +2 stat increase. Do your math.
Initially +2 from ring to ring, but then look at the “built in component” where the jewel would be…
Add the 50 + 18 and you get 68 which is higher than the combined stats on the exotic ring by about 5. This is by very definition a new tier of gear. This is a a treadmill. Even if I didnt care to run this dungeon anymore after I received these items, I still would want to have them to be on par with everyone else.
Its a treadmill.
Karma is as abundant as air, and as useless as the Kardashians.
This isn’t entirely unexpected. I find GW2 to be an incredibly enjoyable game, though I didn’t buy into the marketing hype for the same reason I have walked away bitterly disappointed from other recent MMO’s - promises are broken. Rarely does a business remain loyal their cokittenget audience in the world we live in.
The thing is they have just under a decade of doing well by us players with GW, so why change GW2 in only a couple months?
No clue why infusion couldn’t just be a mechanic to mitigate Agony like it is for Spectral Agony in the first game. For some reason you have to boost the stats on gear as well?
But legendaries are OK. Good for legendaries, I guess. Everything else, here comes more impetus for transmutation stones sales...
Oh since I just thought of this, I didnt like the concept of infusion when it was in vanilla wow and called fire and nature resistance sets.
Seriously. Its such a stupid system… I thought GW2 was a ‘next gen’ mmo…. whats with this kitten?
Yeah man, its utterly inconprehensable that such a old system that is so bad (that was heralded as so bad that blizzard completely abandonded it) has made it into a modern mmo. I think this may be all she wrote for this game and me.
Personally I kittening love you ANET…thank you for this. I can’t wait! If you feel 2 points of stats are going to be that big of a deal for dungeon content that scales you down ( except arah obviously ) and wvw…then well we simply disagree…WTB PvE Leaderboard website. Willing to help with its construction / maintaining.
You DO realize that Magic Find is the major stat point there? The total stat point increase from exotic to ascended isn’t just 2. It’s TEN points from the two minor stats alone. Add in the major stat and it’s probably more like 15. On a single item. Multiply that by 12 (6 armor pcs and 6 accessory pcs) and you’re looking at a stat increase of AT LEAST 180, and is probably closer to 200 since stuff like chest have bigger disparities, which is pretty big in my book.
And that’s not even considering the weapon, which traditionally has the biggest gap between item tiers. And has a damage increase.
You didn’t read the blog post right or you read what you wanted to read.
*November is introducing 2 items from the Ascended Gear line
Back piece and Ring
- Ring Acquired in dungeon
- Back Piece acquired through recipe at mystic forge (not in dungeon)
You need the infusion for the harder parts of the dungeon for the new condition type agony.
THERE ISNT ASCENSION WEAPONS IN NOVEMBER UPDATE (yes I went caps cause forum is blind)
IN NOVEMBER we’ll unveil the first Ascended items. This new rarity type falls between Exotic and Legendary on the spectrum of rarity and has slightly higher stats than Exotics.
Ascended gear works a little bit differently than other gear types. The stats and functionality normally added to gear through upgrade components are actually built into Ascended items. Instead of upgrade slots, Ascended gear has Infusion slots, and rarer versions of the items also come with additional Agony Resistance built into them. Players will be able to acquire Ascended Rings in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon, and Ascended items worn on the back can be acquired through special Mystic Forge recipes.
Dat comprehension
Am I saying otherwise? Where did I say that the other stuff are available already? What it DOES say is that Ascended weapons will get introduced at one point. And what I said is that the stat increase between exotic and ascended isn’t just “2 points” like the guy said.
Please, I don’t think I’m the one who needs comprehension.
In context yes. You where replying to someone saying that its only 2 points then you pointed out that 10 points on the magic find is major. He was saying its not a big deal its 2 points your saying its a big deal its 10 on the magic find then through in there that the weapons (which aren’t in this update anyway) would be a big jump in power.
So your point was its a big jump in stats from exotic to ascension. My point is that you get 1 of the only 2 pieces introduced from a recipe before you even step in the dungeon. So my post in context is relevant to your reply to the other guy.
“The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative.”
What. The. Hell.
Are we not going to get an explanation as to why they changed their entire vision for GW2 for the past five years? This is not the game I signed up for.
Interesting additions. Eager to see how it all plays out. Some of you people are some serious naysayers adverse to change though. You see something new introduced and immediately start throwing a tantrum. This is hardly the WoW treadmill.
I’ll stick by Arenanet still and I’ll enjoy the new content. I’ve been waiting for it.
I am not sure why people are going all doom and gloom about this. The Ascended gear is really no better than the current exotics, it doesnt have normal upgrade slots because of the infusion slots. So they basically just put the normal stat upgrades you would get from upgrade slots into the base stats. From the screenshot they took, we are talking about a 5 stat difference on each stat. Yes its a slight gear upgrade, but Anet really cant win to lose lately. You have all these people that want something to do because there is no “end game” ( and please dont say there arent people saying it, because these forums have been flooded with those types of threads since the first month the game came out ) and now that they are adding an end game of sorts you have all these people stating they are leaving because they are adding it. MMO players are so finicky.
I, for one, am excited about this patch. Kudos Anet, keep the content rolling in!
That blog just made me a long time gw2 player. Thanks so much. Theres one thing GW2 lacked is end-game, for us who like to strive towards more power. To the rest who cant or dont have time, then dont. You can still enjoy the game, my goodness…relax.
Garenthal, what you are talking about is already happening with the "lfm for dungeon exp 80+exot only, send w!
Right or wrong… its a simple formula. Players always want the best around them when they are themselves trying to be the best. Not usually an issue however this will just add to the above. Expecially if they have a new dungeon with harder content.
Even if the stats are just 1 point on each piece higher then exotics. you WILL see people asking for only for that type of armor for their runs.
Bad is bad, and this is bad. I will not quit… but I probably will not spend 7 years as I did in GW1.
Please get your priorities straight Anet.
Stat increase = gear grind.
Gear grind = no money from me ever again.
The more I think about this the more it seems clear to me…Im done with this game unless this is removed, it wasnt fun in vanilla wow and it will be stupid here. Not to mention them breaking everything they said they were about in the manifesto.
G
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Interesting additions. Eager to see how it all plays out. Some of you people are some serious naysayers adverse to change though. You see something new introduced and immediately start throwing a tantrum. This is hardly the WoW treadmill.
I’ll stick by Arenanet still and I’ll enjoy the new content. I’ve been waiting for it.
Change is good, change is wonderful and change is necessary. This is not change though, this is reversion to the same old things that other mmos have been doing for too long. This is the opposite of change. Thats why people are worried, and justifiably so I think. Anet said they wanted to change mmos and at the first sign of financial trouble they throw that vision away to copy the established route to success. Its understandable, but sad.
“We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception. By adding challenging new combat mechanics to end-game content and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players, we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach.”
Can anyone explain this part of the post to me please? I’ve read it 5 times now and I can’t seem to understand what she is trying to say..
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dont like being lied to. And it points to more of this crap down the future. Whats the next colour going to be?